It wasn’t looking good for Tom’s Magnette, but thankfully he’s not quite ready to throw in the towel
1956 MG MAGNETTE ZA
I’m not even joking – Inearly gave up recently. After all of the years, grief and triumph, I nearly put the Magnette up for sale.
There are times when my car, which turned 67 in March, feels like an albatross around my neck. Because it was my late father’s, I sometimes wonder if I keep persevering just because of the family connection and maybe I should pack it all in and find something else. But I won’t.
I didn’t see the Magnette run until I was very nearly 33 years old, despite the car being in my parents’ garage my whole life. I think the simple answer is because money was tight when we were kids and my dad just didn’t have the time or the funds for his car when there were three of us with rugby practice and drama rehearsals to go to.
I drove it for the first time in September 2020 a week before my son was born, and I haven’t driven it since September 2022. I have been unable to solve a starting problem and while money is tight for everyone, so is precious time. My son won’t be two forever and weekends are for swimming and toddler football not spannering alone in a cold garage.
But with nights getting lighter, I ventured into said garage one evening to take another look, only to find evidence that the Magnette had been housing squatters. It was my fault. I hadn’t been in the garage nearly enough and the evidence was left in the boot (among some insulation that they’d made into a bed along with some bird seed and chewed wiring casing).
Not only had I neglected the car, I’d invited its visitors by feeding them! Luckily for me they had left the ori
